I was born into a very large family of seven. I was the youngest. When I was six months old, my father died, and then when I was eleven years old, my mother also died. This was very hard for me to deal with. As you can imagine, at eleven years old I was an orphan.

When I graduated from high school, I went to work at a trucking company. That’s where I met Ken. After a really whirlwind relationship and romance, we thought we were madly in love and we got married within six months. We had three children very, very quickly. I was really young, only nineteen years old, and I really didn’t know much about anything. I didn’t know anything about marriage, let’s put it that way.

Ken was going on a business trip, and our marriage was in pretty bad shape. He said, “Jerry, when I come home, have my suitcase packed because I have an apartment and I’m leaving you. I’m going to divorce you.” And he left.

I was relieved that he was going to be leaving because there was so much tension in the house. I didn’t want the kids to grow up with that. I knew it would be more peaceful without him there. There wouldn’t be any more fighting. The next day he called me and said, “Jerry, wait up. I’m coming home. I want to tell you something.” I told him I wasn’t waiting up, that I was tired and didn’t want to hear anything he had to say, and I hung up. But then I thought, I’m curious. I’ll stay up and see what he has to say.

When he came to the door, I opened it and looked at him. He looked different. I couldn’t explain what it was, but something about him was different. We sat down and he said, “I have to tell you what happened to me.” He told me that he stopped at a trucking company to visit a friend who was a Christian. The friend brought out a Bible and said, “I knew you were coming. I have to tell you about Jesus.” Ken told me he prayed the sinner’s prayer, got saved, and that he was a different person, set free.

I told him he was crazy and that I was going to bed. As I was going up the steps, he stopped me and said, “I’ve decided not to divorce you. God gave me a love for you. I’m going to stay and work the marriage out.” That is not what I wanted to hear.

Over the next two weeks, he followed me around the house reading Bible verses to me. I was screaming at him to quit reading that book to me. Then one day I saw him in the kitchen pouring his whiskey and beer down the drain. He told me he wasn’t going to drink anymore because he didn’t have to. I thought, well, that’s one good thing.

As the weeks went on, he was nicer to the kids. He always loved them, but before he never had time for them. Now he did, and the kids responded to it. They’d sit on his lap while he read them stories. He also started going to church with me, which was another good thing.

One day we were sitting in church, and I looked up at the altar. Above it was a crucifix with Jesus hanging on it. I had seen that a million times. I knew what He did. I knew He died on the cross for us. But something was different. He spoke to me inside and said, “Jerry, if you were the only one in this whole world, I would have still hung on the cross for your sins.”

I started to cry. I never cried. I had to be strong. I couldn’t even remember crying after my mother died. When Mass was over, Ken asked if I was okay because it was strange to see me crying. I told him I needed to see the priest because I didn’t want to go against my church.

We went in and Ken told the priest what had happened to him. The priest listened and then told me that he’d heard this kind of thing before, but it hadn’t happened to him. He told me I just needed to focus on God more. I knew that wasn’t true. I realized that the priest didn’t know Jesus the way Ken did.

So I talked to God in my heart. I told Him I saw now that He died for me, for my sins. I didn’t understand any of it, but if He wanted my life, I would give it to Him. When I did that, it felt like everything was lifted off of me. I felt free. I felt forgiven for the first time in my life. The empty place in my heart began to fill with His love.

We walked outside, and for the first time I saw everything differently. Everything looked beautiful. I saw God’s creation for the first time and realized how much I had taken it for granted. Then I looked at my husband, the man I had despised, and God gave me a love for him.

He gave me a new marriage and a new love, a deep, committed love that lasts a lifetime. That’s why Ken and I tell people what happened to us, because what happened to us is what God wants for everyone. Jesus wants to come and live in all of us, to be our Lord and Savior, to set us free from the bondage in our lives.

He gave me five children. He gave me my heart’s desire. He gave me people to love me. And at the top of the list of everyone who loves me is Jesus Christ.